I followed the career of "Dio" the band since it started after the downfall of the Mob Rules incarnation of Black Sabbath. Followed it through Ronnie's return to Black Sabbath in 1992, back to Dio, and through the third Sabbath stint, Heaven & Hell. Through all that time, there's been a few Dio compilations that I'm aware of. 1992?s "Diamonds: The Best of Dio", 2000?s "The Very Beast of Dio", 2003?s "Stand Up & Shout: The Dio Anthology", & 2005?s "Metal Hits" (plus a handful of smaller, non US releases). Diamonds was never released domestically in the US. Stand Up & Shout was released in the US, but didn't get a ton of attention, as I recall. Universal is set to hopefully draw some attention to the wide ranging career of Ronnie James Dio with a new compilation due on August 8th, called "Mightier Than the Sword: The Ronnie James Dio Story". This two disc career spanning retrospective culls tracks from as far back as one of the Elf albums from 1974, going through Rainbow in the latter 70?s, and then the back and forth dance between "Dio" and Black Sabbath in the 80?s, 90?s, & 00?s.

This compares a bit more well to the older Anthology compilation, as I feel the track list is a bit more spread out. Additionally, this new compilation has two more studio albums to draw from than the old one does (plus a handful of live albums as well). Anyway, I'm rather pleased with the track listing for this new compilation, which is thus:

Disc 1

Carolina County Ball (Elf) Love is All (The Butterfly Ball) Temple of the King (Rainbow) Catch the Rainbow (Rainbow) Stargazer (Rainbow) Run With the Wolf (Rainbow) Kill the King (Live - Rainbow) Long Live Rock & Roll (Rainbow) Lady of the Lake (Rainbow) Gates of Babylon (Rainbow) Die Young (Black Sabbath) Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath) Children of the Sea (Black Sabbath)